


Not A Big Deal

by whatteam_voltron



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Lance (Voltron) Angst, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-05 02:36:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15160607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatteam_voltron/pseuds/whatteam_voltron
Summary: No one really made a fuss about how Lance died. Lance took that to mean that since Allura could bring them back, death didn't matter. He starts risking his life for no reason.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I had this idea of Lance taking no one fussing over him dying to mean that it wasn't that big of a deal- that death itself wasn't a big deal, that Allura would just bring people back anyway. And so he starts risking his life for no good reason. And I had to expand on it.

Lance wanted to ask so badly.

_Why didn't anyone make a big deal out of it?_

He didn't expect hours of fussing or people babying him, but he expected someone to mention it. Ask if he was okay. Reprimand him for being reckless. _Say anything in response to him dying._

He almost convinced himself to ask Allura if the others even knew, but then he shook his head. Of course the others knew. He was probably making it into too big of a deal, he was alive now, after all.

He really didn't want to be the only one to make a big deal out of it. They would roll their eyes, say he's being dramatic. Say he wasn't taking things seriously. Things are dangerous and they can't worry about Lance chickening out because he couldn't take being dead for five minutes.

He came to a conclusion. After seeing the reactions to his own death and then watching Allura restore life to Shiro, he learned something. Death wasn't a big deal, Allura can fix it.

Which isn't to say that no one was upset about Shiro dying, but that was because he suffered so long. Because he had watched as Lance and the others didn't recognize the fraud. Because he asked Lance for help and he failed him.

In comparison, Lance had nothing to complain about.

And he shouldn't fear it happening again, he convinced himself of this. Now that Allura could bring people back, dying was just another injury. It wasn't pleasant, sure, but he would get over it.

He found himself biting back any lingering instincts of self-preservation. Mission first. He would dive into danger if it meant they would succeed.

And part of him still hoped that they'd notice, that they'd yell at him for being reckless. The most he'd get was a startled "Lance!" with no follow-up discussion after the fact. He figured these were just reactions that lingered from when death meant something, from when they could be in danger.

He found it was harder to ignore threats when they weren't directed at him. He knew if one of the others died, Allura would be able to revive them, but what if she couldn't? Besides, dying isn't exactly painless, and he doesn't want any harm coming to his friends.

And of course, the most important person to protect was Allura. If she was hurt, well, besides the obvious fact that she couldn't revive herself and the team needed her leadership, Lance would be heartbroken.

He stopped counting his near death experiences. It used to be saving Coran from the bomb, the airlock, and dying for Allura, but they piled on quickly after that. He took a bullet to the side when he pushed Hunk out of the way. Got a concussion when he made Red take a hit meant for Green. The list went on, and they hadn't even gotten to Earth yet. But they'd patch him up-- he only needed Coran so far, not going as far as to die and need Allura to step in again yet.

He hadn't noticed the worried glances everyone would toss his way. He didn't know they noticed his behavior change.

Then he ran into danger without the excuse of protecting someone.

It was their final stop before Earth. They were meeting with another group of aliens who offered aid in the form of more supplies and troops.

But playing a simple game could give team Voltron double what they were promised. All you had to do was sit in one of 3 identical chairs. On the count of 3, a lethal amount of electricity would be sent through one of the chairs. If you live, you win. Like Russian Roulette.

"Thank you for the offer, but none of us are interested in that type of game." Allura tried to stay diplomatic. She had to respect their traditions, no matter how needlessly dangerous they were.

"Actually, I'll give it a go." The entire table whipped their heads to face the source of the voice, not quite believing he would have said this. Sure enough, it was Lance, looking smug as ever.

"No, Lance, we can't put you in danger for no reason." Allura spoke through gritted teeth, both annoyed at Lance for thinking this would be funny to suggest and concerned that he meant it.

"You see, Princess Allura," The large, hair-covered alien spoke, "Once you accept to play, any backing out will result in death."

"Yes, but as we were not aware of that rule, I think you can make an exce-"

"We have been doing this game this way for 1000 years with no exceptions."

The rest of the table was all talking at once.

"He was just joking!" Shiro argued.

"He doesn't know what he's saying!" Pidge.

"You can't just force him to play your stupid game!" Keith.

"Please, can't we find another way to do this?" Hunk.

Lance only stood up, rolling his eyes and smiling. He bit back his fear of death, this being the first time he had time to think about his decision. It would be silly to show fear, right?

"Ignore them, they're a little cranky. Long drive here, you know?" Lance made himself laugh.

"Lance, what are you doing?" Keith demanded.

"Stop fooling around!" Pidge.

"Please, Lance." Allura.

Lance smiled. "Relax, guys." And he went up to the stage with 3 chairs.

Before he could choose one, the paladins started getting out their weapons. "I'm sorry, Galnians, we really need our paladin back." Allura said as the others took a stance, ready to fight.

"He made a commitment. He must honor it." The Galnian replied, an edge to his voice now.

"Look guys, let's not start a war over here!" Lance asked of his team.

"Well we can't let them- hey!" Pidge was interrupted as clear walls encased Lance, the Galnians in the room, and the 3 chairs. 

Lance looked back at the alien, who shrugged. "This happens sometimes. People get upset, so we don't let them interfere until it's complete. Now pick a seat, blue paladin." Lance would say that the alien was probably smiling under all that hair.

Lance sighed, then picked the seat all the way to the left, ignoring the team looking horrified on the other side of the glass. He gave them a wink right before the Galnian started the countdown.

"And 3... 2... 1..." Lance heard a button being pressed behind him, and he flinched as sparks began to fly from the chair next to his. Then he smiled in relief.

The alien was all too excited, helping him up. "Congratulations! Wasn't it exhilarating?" he asked. Lance only nodded, staring at his friends, whose weapons had now been put away as they weren't able to use them when it would have made a difference.

The wall was lowered. "See guys, nothing to worry about!" Lance grinned.

His face fell as he looked at the faces of the other paladins. They ranged from shocked to horrified to angry to worried.

Allura looked right past Lance. "My apologies to you and the other Galnians, I'm afraid we must be going. We appreciate what you have offered us." Her voice was strained.

Lance caught a look from Shiro before they started walking and he winced. He could gather that he was in big trouble.


	2. Chapter 2

A few Galnians followed the team, carrying the supplies they had promised to the lions. The team was tense, reluctantly silent, everyone keeping an eye on Lance.

As soon as they got to the lions and the aliens could leave, they turned on him. Keith didn't even wait for them to be fully out of earshot.

"What the Hell was that, Lance?" Keith got in his face immediately.

Lance defensively laughed it off, and before he even opened his mouth to speak Keith was yelling again.

"You need to take this seriously! Dammit, are you actually on a mission to die?" And Lance was quieted by the look in Keith's eye. He wasn't just angry; he looked terrified.

Shiro put a hand on Keith's shoulder. "Keith's right. What you did today was dangerous. You gambled your life for nothing!"

"It wasn't nothing! I got us-"

"We could have made do with what we already had! What made you think that was okay?" Shiro was trying to walk the line of being calm and losing control enough to show Lance how serious the situation was.

"I-uh- I thought-" With all the eyes on him, Lance suddenly wasn't so sure about things. He looked at the ground and mumbled. "I thought it wasn't really a big deal."

"Not a big deal? Lance, you could have _died_!" Pidge yelled.

"So? Allura could just-"

"Are you kidding me? You think that because Allura can _sometimes_ bring people back, you're invincible?" Keith was furious.

"Uh... yeah?" Lance sounded unsure.

Hunk had stayed back before, trying to give Lance the benefit of the doubt, but now he stepped forward. "Lance, you can't act like this. Like you're unstoppable, like you're all-powerful. It's-"

"Stupid and arrogant." Keith finished.

"I was going to say dangerous, but alright." Hunk shrugged.

"It's not like that!" Tears were welling up in Lance's eyes.

"What's it like, then?" Keith countered.

Suddenly Lance felt a bit of anger. "Well what else was I supposed to think, huh? It's either that death wasn't a big deal for us anymore or that you all just didn't care about mine specifically!"

Silence fell over the group. Lance saw Allura out her head in her hands.

"What are you talking about?" Pidge asked softly, cautiously.

Lance only looked at Allura. "You didn't tell them. Are you serious, this whole time they just didn't know?"

"Wait, wait, wait. Can someone please explain what's going on?" Hunk asked.

Allura looked up. "When Lance saved me from that beam and he stopped responding, I went into Red to check on him and he- he was dead, I had to bring him back like I did with Shiro."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Hunk asked. "Don't you think it would be a little importat for his _best friend_ to know he died?"

"Maybe it wasn't that big of a deal." Lance grumbled.

"That's not what happened, Lance. You know I care very much for all of you, I just- When I first found you I had to focus on bringing you back as soon as possible. Then after I- well, at the moment I didn't want to alarm anyone in the middle of the battle, but then I thought about it and I didn't want to talk too much about what happened because if the team thought I could just revive anyone from death, you would all start taking less care of yourselves." Allura grimaced. "I suppose that plan didn't work too well."

She cleared her throat and continued. "For the record, I got lucky bringing back the two of you. Conditions have to be specific, the body has to be mostly undamaged, and chance plays a part too. It is never something to rely on."

"Got it, princess." Lance whispered. He paused. "So if- uh- if no one else brought it up because they didn't know, why didn't you talk to me about me dying?"

"I avoided the subject because I thought you would be mad at me."

"Mad at you? You saved my life!"

"I was also the reason you died!" She argued.

"Hey, I chose to take that hit for you!"

"You shouldn't have had to. I was-"

"We all let our guard down sometimes. It's fine, princess. I just really wish you at least told me you weren't telling anyone about it. I just assumed everyone knew and didn't care enough to have a reaction. So I came to my own conclusions."

"You think we just wouldn't mention you being dead?" Pidge tilted her head.

"I mean, there was a lot going on, and it was only for a few minutes, so-"

"Most people aren't dead for any amount of time!" Hunk yelled.

"Well it's not like it's anywhere near how long Shiro was-"

"Stop." Shiro stepped forward, putting a hand on Lance's shoulder. "Lance, we can't ignore our own problems because we think someone has it worse. You all have been through more than you should have to, and you shouldn't feel like you can't be upset about it."

"I- uh- okay?"

"And you need to be more careful on missions. Death isn't something to be taken lightly. I understand why you started acting like this, but you need to stop. You have to value your own life, and trust your other paladins to not get killed when you aren't jumping between them and danger."

Lance winced. So they noticed he was taking blows for others more often. "But what if-"

Shiro sighed. "I know you want to protect the rest of the team, but none of them want you to get hurt for them. They can hold their own."

"I know, it's just- nevermind. I'll try to stop doing that so much."

Finally Keith spoke again. "So if you thought Allura told them, why didn't you tell me? When you were telling me about what I missed when I was gone, you didn't even-"

"What do you want me to say, Keith? I knew no one else thought much of it and I didn't want to actually watch someone's first reaction to my death and have it be brushing it off as an unimportant detail. I thought you especially wouldn't care and I didn't want to see that."

Especially. The word hit Keith in the gut and he threw his arms around Lance before he knew what he was doing. Soon more joined in.

When the hug was finally over, Hunk put an arm over Lance's shoulder. "How about we hang out for a while and you tell me all about the time you heroically saved Allura and came back from the dead?"

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments!!! Or even prompts!!!
> 
> Also posted on my tumblr, whatteam-voltron.


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